Indictment of US Pro-Russian Socialists Is Revealing, But Charges Precarious

The Department of Justice in Washington on Jan. 14, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

News Analysis

A recent indictment of a several American socialist activists makes a strong case that they worked hand-in-glove with a Russian intelligence cutout. That doesn’t mean, however, that the charges against them will stand.

The April 13 indictment alleges that several members and officials of the African People’s Socialist Party and the Uhuru Movement (APSP), all American citizens, conspired and acted as agents of Russia to further Russian interests in America, including influencing several local elections.

The 37-page document (pdf) details how Omali Yeshitela, founder and chairman of APSP, traveled to Moscow in May 2015 and launched a cooperation with Aleksandr Ionov and his Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR). Ionov’s group was not only funded by grants from the Russian government, but he answered directly to the FSB, Russian intelligence and security service, the indictment alleges.

Ionov would send requests to APSP to instigate and back various causes in Russian interest, including several demonstrations, a “petition on Genocide of African people in U.S.,” support for Russian invasion of Ukraine, and support for the Russian Olympic team in 2016 when over 100 Russian athletes were banned from competing because of a sprawling doping scandal.

In the other direction, APSP would ask Ionov for money, including some $12,000 for a “four-city tour” in 2016 in support of the genocide petition.

Two APSP members also ran for local offices in St. Petersburg, Florida, in 2017 and 2019 with the clandestine support of AGMR, prosecutors allege.

The allegations indicate that APSP officials were aware of what they were doing.

As Yeshitela said in a summary of one of his 2015 Moscow trips emailed to APSP members, it was “clear” that AGMR was an “instrument of Russian government,” the indictment says.

Prosecutors, however, will face a rather high legal bar to secure convictions in the case.

The charges they brought are: Violation of Section 951, which bans acting as an agent of a foreign government without registering as such; and a conspiracy to violate said statute.

Section 951 requires a rather tight relationship between the foreign government and its supposed agent.

In 2018, a Virginia judge tossed a Section 951 charge saying that the meaning of “agent” in this context includes “the power of the principal to give directions and the duty of the agent to obey those directions.”

“A person must do more than act as a ‘representative’ or ‘on behalf of’ a foreign government,” said the district judge, Anthony Trenga (pdf).

The indictment against APSP includes evidence that Ionov was a Russian agent, including his communications with alleged FSB agents Yegor Popov and Aleksey Sukhodolov.

“Don’t do anything without me or [Sukhodolov] anymore. … Because I am the only person responsible for working with you. [Sukhodolov] oversees and manages everything. … These are important internal formalities. Please do not violate them. This can have serious consequences,” Popov communicated to Ionov in 2018, according to the indictment.

But the indictment offers little evidence of Ionov having such direct control of the Americans. It states that he was “directing” APSP officials to do things but it’s not clear they were under any obligation to follow.

It’s possible APSP violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which bans unregistered advocacy on behalf of a foreign entity that primarily benefits a foreign government. But bringing charges under FARA requires that the violator knew he was supposed to register. Usually, if the Department of Justice discovers a violation, it simply sends a notice asking the person or entity to register ex post.

Prosecutors haven’t charged a FARA violation in the APSP case.